Conversational Crossfire

by maximusaurus

There’s something uniquely unpleasant about two people talking to me at once. It’s like wearing a space helmet filled with cicadas.

Whenever I try to concentrate on one voice, the other gets in the way. My brain tries to process both and it just ends up an incomprehensible jumble, like a can of alphabet spaghetti dropped from a low flying space shuttle. Beyond the sensory discomfort, it also stresses me out, because I feel under pressure to understand and respond to both people.

A lot of people on the spectrum have told me they find this uncomfortable as well. For many of us, conversing with just one person can be a daunting task that requires our full concentration; dealing with two people talking to us at the same can be completely overwhelming. It can feel like a relentless onslaught on both a social and a sensory level.

Try to keep this in mind when interacting with people on the spectrum; if someone’s already talking to us, it’s probably best to wait a bit rather than join forces! 😉

Great description! I like to tell people it’s like there are 100 TV’s on in a room. You can’t just focus on one. You are trying to hear and comprehend all 100 shows at once. The amount of stress and sensory overload it causes is exhausting. After trying to listen to all 100 shows, you really did not comprehend anything because it was just too much stimulus. It’s a good way to describe why school and parties, or any place with multiple noises, is so difficult for many on the spectrum.